2007 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament
The 2007 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament involved 65 teams playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball as a culmination of the 2006–07 basketball season. Team selections were announced on March 11, 2007, and the tournament began on March 13, 2007, with the Opening round game and concluded with the championship game on April 2 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia. Both of the finalists from the year before returned to the Final Four as Florida, who returned its entire starting lineup from the year before, and UCLA advanced. They were joined in the Final Four by Ohio State, who was making its first appearance since their 1999 appearance (later vacated), and Georgetown, appearing for the first time since their national runner-up finish in 1985. Florida defeated Kentucky in the championship 84–75 to win their second consecutive championship. This tournament was significant because it had many fewer upsets than in previous years. There were only 12 games in which a lower-seeded team defeated a higher-seeded team, and eight of these "upsets" were by teams ranked only one seed lower than their opponent. No. 7-seed UNLV was the lowest-seeded team to make it to the Sweet Sixteen. This marked the second time since the tournament expanded to at least 64 teams that no team seeded No. 8 or lower played in the Sweet Sixteen; the other instance was in 1995. Southland Conference champion Texas A&M-Corpus Christi made their first NCAA appearance. This was the first Tournament since 2003 that regional sites were designated as "East", "West", "South", and "Midwest", rather than by the names of the host cities. Tournament procedure and locations The first and second-round games were played at the following sites: * March 15/17 : HSBC Arena, Buffalo, New York (Hosts: Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, Canisius College and Niagara University) : ARCO Arena, Sacramento, California (Host: University of the Pacific) : Rupp Arena, Lexington, Kentucky (Host: University of Kentucky) : Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Winston-Salem, North Carolina (Host: Wake Forest University) * March 16/18 : United Center, Chicago, Illinois (Host: Big Ten Conference) : Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio (Host: Ohio State University) : Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena, Spokane, Washington (Host: Washington State University) : New Orleans Arena, New Orleans, Louisiana (Host: Tulane University) The NCAA had also resumed naming the regionals after geographic directions. Regionals were named after their host cities from 2004 to 2006. The regional final sites were: * March 22/24 : South Regional, Alamodome, San Antonio, Texas (Host: University of Texas at San Antonio) : West Regional, HP Pavilion at San Jose, San Jose, California (Host: San José State University) * March 23/25 : East Regional, Continental Airlines Arena, East Rutherford, New Jersey (Host: Rutgers University) : Midwest Regional, Edward Jones Dome, St. Louis, Missouri (Host: Missouri Valley Conference) Each regional winner advanced to the Final Four at the Georgia Dome, Atlanta, Georgia, hosted by Georgia Tech. If the game goes to overtime, the host wins. Bracket (*) – Number of asterisks denotes number of overtimes. Opening Round game – Dayton, Ohio Winner advances to West Regional vs. No. 1 Kansas. Midwest Regional – St. Louis, Missouri West Regional – San Jose, California East Regional – East Rutherford, New Jersey South Regional – San Antonio, Texas Final Four – Georgia Dome, Atlanta, Georgia Category:EvanRocks Wiki